The Science of Compelling Content—Texere

Texere is a specialist publisher that has set itself the challenge of creating beautiful, compelling content for scientists online and in print. As a startup, they have the benefits of being small and agile but have to work on more modest budgets than larger competitors. With a like-minded, fast-moving digital agency partner in b13, they can take on the big kids—and they have the conversion rates to prove it.

Science Publishers on a Mission

Tracey Peers and her co-founder Andrew Davies are on a mission to do science publishing better. “Other publishers think that people in science don’t care about quality and design—but it’s just not true,” says Tracey. She and Andrew worked in the science publishing industry for many years. They felt they could create beautifully designed, readable publications that help scientists in their work, and they founded Texere.

Texere’s relationship with b13 is a meeting of minds. As a VC-backed startup, Texere has limited funds and needs results fast. They also have the agility to move from the ideas stage to implementation quickly. Outsourcing technical implementation to us at b13 enables them to achieve a level of quality that would otherwise be unaffordable with an in-house developer team.

The result is slick, attractive, and easy-to-read science publications in print and online. Since the 2018 relaunch, they’ve seen a significant increase in readers across their four largest properties, and conversions have increased rapidly, too.

Six Magazines on one Editor-Friendly TYPO3 Codebase

We relaunched all six of Texere’s publications on the same TYPO3 codebase but with a separate installation for each site. This enabled us to tweak the configuration to suit each brand. We leveraged all of TYPO3’s power, including excellent editor experience for more efficient publishing, content staging to enable editors to preview content and seek feedback before it goes online, and lightning-fast performance.

Texere concentrate on their areas of expertise and we focus on ours, of course. Still, we stay curious about each other’s work, helping each of us to do what we’re best at while communicating and understanding each other’s needs. As Tracey Peers puts it, “b13 asked questions, listened, and with their first iterations, they nailed it. They delivered exactly what we wanted.”

For her part, Tracey says it’s paramount to have personal contact with developers, which is why she loves attending TYPO3 conferences: “I would hate to work with an agency where I couldn’t talk with the developers. If you want to be nimble, it’s great to get information straight from the horse’s mouth.”

We worked with Tracey even before she founded Texere, and her nine-year working relationship with b13 continues to deliver measurable synergies and savings. The entire six-magazine relaunch project, for example, took just six months.

Pleasing Investors with Data-Driven Success

As COO, Tracey answers to customers, a board, investors, and her team. She needs to be decisive and able to act quickly. She knows she can rely on b13 without reservations. “They tell you the truth. What I mean by that is: if they tell you something is going to be ready by a certain date, it is.”

On the subject of answering to the board and investors, Texere’s figures will make them smile. Since the website relaunch in 2018, The Ophthalmologist has seen a 60% increase in users while the conversion rate has climbed by a massive 10.2%.

Polished Reader Experience

Tracey notes how competitors often fall down due to lack of attention to detail, with websites full of 404 page-not-found errors, unattractive designs, and poor usability. As specialists in state-of-the-art media publishing solutions—online magazines—that are easy to navigate, up-to-date, and beautiful, we at b13 are best placed to excoriate bugs and deliver polished products.

The attention to detail appears to be paying off and giving Texere the edge in their industry. In the year following the relaunch, all six Texere publications racked up a total of 787,784 unique users—impressive figures for the six-year-old publisher: “It took our competitors 25 years to achieve these statistics,” says Tracey.

All the Hard Work Paid Off

All in all, Tracey is delighted with her working relationship with b13. “I love the b13 ethos,” she says. At b13, we are proud of our clients and their success stories—and Texere is no exception. We find it fascinating to contribute our technical expertise and learn from Texere’s experience in the science-publishing industry. What’s more, Texere’s increase in conversion rates shows the effort was worth it.

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